The BJP legislative party meeting will be held in Delhi on Wednesday almost a week after the saffron party stormed back to power after 27 years, beating AAP. The 48 new MLAs will meet and decide the new chief minister of the state.
However, there are reports that two new names - Bawana MLA Ravinder Indraj Singh and Madipur MLA Kailash Gangwal - have joined the race for the top post. They will join the six other names in the probable list, including New Delhi MLA Parvesh Verma and Shalimarbagh MLA Rekha Gupta.
Singh defeated Jai Bhagwan Upkar of the AAP from Bawana, an SC constituency, with a clear mandate after suffering defeat at his hands in the 2019 Assembly elections. He won by a strong margin of 31,475 votes, marking a significant gain through Dalit-Jat alliances. His win also reflected the AAP's waning stronghold among the Dalit community.
As for Gangwal, he won against AAP's Rekha Birla with a majority of over 10,000 votes. Their names could be considered as BJP has the precedence of selecting first-time MLAs.
The BJP could also be aiming to give a message by selecting a SC seat MLA, especially in the wake of the Opposition trying to corner the party on the topics of reservation and the Constitution. Delhi has more than 17 percent Dalit population and the party could turn their anger towards AAP into BJP votes.
The other prominent names doing rounds are Vijender Gupta, Ashish Sood and Manjinder Singh Sirsa.
Meanwhile, there are speculations that the allocation of portfolios may take more time.
AAP has used the delay in announcing the name to train its guns on the BJP, stating that the party lacked a credible leader to govern the national capital. "It has been 10 days since the election results were announced. People thought the BJP would declare the names of its chief minister and cabinet ministers on February 9 and launch development projects immediately. But it is now clear that it has no face to run Delhi," she said.
